


Raidou Kuzunoha the XV vs. The Daemon Sultan's Cultist

by lessiehanamoray



Category: Call of Cthulhu (Roleplaying Game), Cthulhu Mythos - H. P. Lovecraft, Persona 5, Persona Series, Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner
Genre: Explanations, Gen, Horror, Spoilers, third semester spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-20
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:01:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26003068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lessiehanamoray/pseuds/lessiehanamoray
Summary: Takuto Maruki receives a strange passenger in his cab one day, a man both odd and familiar, who inquires about a recent string of vandalism around Maruki's apartment. What follows is an eye-opening experience for him.
Kudos: 18





	Raidou Kuzunoha the XV vs. The Daemon Sultan's Cultist

“Where to?”

Takuto Maruki twisted his body to smile at his customer.

The young man dropped a black cat on the taxi seat.

“I hope you don’t mind my service animal.”

“O-of course not.”

A service cat?

The young man slid into the cab. A quick button press and the door closed automatically. While he preferred to get out and personally open and close doors, the busy streets of Tokyo didn’t always make that feasible.

“University of Tokyo, Komaba Campus.”

Maruki signalled to head into traffic.

“You a student?”

“Graduate student.”

Ooh. Maruki mostly got salarymen in his cab. Getting an academic might be a refreshing change of pace.

“What discipline?”

“Mathematics.” The man lowered his hat, an old fashioned Taisho cap, over his eyes.

“That’s impressive.”

“Only if I ever finish my dissertation.”

Maruki laughed at that. “They’re stressful alright, but it’s worth it.”

“How do you know?”

“Graduated from the Humanities and Sociology program.”

“And you drive a cab?”

Maruki sighed. “Needed a break.”

“Did something wrong.” The sharp tone in the young man’s voice left no room for interpretation. He stated fact, not theory.

Luckily there wasn’t much traffic at that moment, or Maruki feared his sudden pressure on the accelerator would have caused them to crash into someone.

“What makes you say that?”

“Dr. Takuto Maruki, right? Your last job was a brief stint at Shujin Academy. By all accounts, you were well liked, with many of the teachers even pushing for you to stay on.”

“That’s a lot to know about a random cab driver.”

The man sighed. “I’ve had my eyes on you for awhile. Didn’t expect you to land in my path though.”

“What do you mean?”

“Your apartment complex suffers from a streak of vandalism.”

“Yeah.” 

Maruki forced himself to calm down. If this was about the vandals, then maybe this guy just wanted more information.

Wait? What made him think he had a right to it in the first place?

“I work part-time at a detective agency in Shinjuku. The police brought the vandalism case to us.”

“All the way to Shinjuku?”

“I was out here taking a look when you landed in my lap.”

“Why do you want to talk to me?”

“Your apartment is the epicenter.”

“My…?”

“I really do have to go to school now, but would it be alright with you if I investigated your apartment later?”

The cat, totally silent up to this point, meowed.

“Why would you need to?”

“I believe the same markings have appeared within your apartment.”

Maruki gripped the steering wheel. “Why would you think that?”

“It’s a symbol. One connecting back to you. I’m not accusing you of the vandalism. I just think you’re responsible.”

The cat hissed.

“You’re the one always telling me to act more directly.”

Could this cat talk too? And if it could, then why couldn’t he understand it? Or maybe this guy was just crazy. He had said he studied mathematics.

“Who are you?” Maruki asked. 

“Forgive me. I’ve been debating if I should tell you.”

Debating?

“Why don’t you park when we get to the campus? We can talk on the grounds.”

Yeah. Maruki felt it might be safer to talk while he wasn’t driving too.

  
  
  


The young man sat on the bench, happily gobbling down a convenience store rice ball. The black cat drank tea from the lid of a thermos

Maruki stood, taking it all in.

He recognized this man, but for the life of him he couldn’t place it. Just...something. The old cap should have stood out, but somehow it just felt right on the guy. The white belt with several things which looked like test tubes should have been distinctive too, but again it just felt not contradictory.

There was a feeling from this guy, not so different from the impression Akira Kurusu had left him when they first met. He could feel an energy off the man, a sort of intense...he didn’t know how to put it.

“Raidou Kuzunoha.”

“Huh?”

The man swallowed. “Raidou Kuzunoha the Fifteenth.” He gestured to the cat. “And my assistant, Gouto-douji.”

The cat bowed slightly.

“Takuto Maruki.” Maruki rubbed the back of his head. “Guess you knew that already.”

Raidou smirked. 

“What makes you think the vandalism has to do with me?”

“Did you know the symbol of chaos has eight points?”

“Can’t say I’ve ever run into it.”

“You run into fewer weirdos than I thought.”

“Well, it does make sense vandals would use a symbol of chaos.”

“They don’t.”

“Heh?”

“The traditional symbol looks like arrows sticking out of a shield,” Raidou explained. “The symbols in your apartment more closely resemble the eight pointed star.”

“Why do you insist there are symbols in my apartment?”

“You’re the epicenter.”

“Why do you think that?”

Raidou crossed his legs. “You’re the only cultist present.”

“Cultist?”

Raidou confirmed his notion with a nod.

Now, Maruki knew that guy was just crazy. He needed help if he believed in cultists. Certainly if he believed Maruki was one.

“Predictable. Since you don’t believe you’re a cultist, you must not be a cultist. That’s not how the Daemon Sultan works.”

Daemon Sultan?

“It taps into madness.”

Taps into madness? Wait. Could he mean…?

“Aza-”

Raidou leapt off the bench, shoving Maruki to the ground in an instant. He held one hand tight over Maruki’s mouth.

“Calling its name started this,” he hissed.

Maruki’s eyes widened, both from the tackle and from the implications. Did Raidou mean Azathoth? How could his persona cause symbols now? And, almost as pressing, how did Raidou Kuzunoha know about that?

Raidou released Maruki’s mouth and rose to his feet. He then held out his hand. Maruki cautiously took the offered hand and stood as well.

“What do you mean? Calling its name?”

“Two years ago, you reached out to the Daemon Sultan for power.”

Reached out to the Daemon Sultan? How could using a persona, a representation of his very self, constituit reaching out to another being? Could Raidou actually be thinking of Yaldabaoth?

“A human shouldn’t have enough power to reach outside His influence.”

“His influence?”

“You formed a pact.”

A pact? Like a deal?

“With what?”

Raidou glared at him. “The Daemon Sultan. The Blind Idiot God. Whatever you want to call it, just don’t use its name.”

“I never made a pact.”

Raidou slammed back down on the bench. “Pacts don’t require explicit agreement.”

“What kind of deal is that?”

“A bad one.” Raidou dropped his elbow on his leg and his chin on his hand.

Maruki sat down beside him. Raidou tilted his head to regard the man.

“Just by calling out a name?”

A curt nod.

Maruki stared down at the stone pathway.

He muttered, “You have no idea the harm you’re causing, do you?” With a heavy sigh, he looked back to Raidou. “We’ve met before.”

Raidou’s cat, Gouto-douji, jumped on his lap.

“You were there.”

Nothing.

Oh well, maybe he was wrong. Or maybe Raidou simply didn’t wish to discuss it.

Maruki sighed. He recognized this method. Raidou needed Maruki to ask for his help. To realize he needed it. First, he needed some more information. “So how does this pact work?”

“You call out. It grants your perceived wish.”

“And in return?”

“You let it in.”

“Let it in?”

Raidou absentmindedly stroked Gouto-douji.

Maybe the cat really was for therapy.

After a moment, and a bit of disgruntled purring from the cat, Raidou finally spoke again. “Infinity isn’t infinite.”

“Eh?”

“Cantor’s Theorem proved that, mathematically, some infinite sets are larger than others. And the power of an infinite set always leads to a larger set.”

“Ah.” Maruki felt like he was grasping at straws. “And that’s true outside of math as well?”

Raidou nodded. The cat meowed.

“It’s not really what it means mathematically, but I think of it as representing practical infinity versus ideal infinity.”

“Ideal infinity?”

“True infinity,” explained Raidou, “doesn’t really exist. It just means more than our minds comprehend.”

“The practical infinity?”

Raidou nodded once more.

“And this thing I made a pact with is out of practical infinity?”

Another nod.

“If we can tell it’s outside, then how…?” Maruki scratched his head. 

The cat meowed again.

Raidou nodded at it. “I need to get to work. When can we next speak?”

Direct, wasn’t he? “How’s tomorrow afternoon? I need to do laundry so…”

“We can talk at the machines.”

“I guess?”

“Excellent.” Raidou stood, Gouto hopping off his lap fluidly you’d think they’d planned it. “I shall meet you outside your apartment then.”

“The time?”

“I’ll meet you at eight.”

“Huh?”

Raidou strode away.

How’d he? Sure, Maruki usually got on with his day at about eight in the morning, but…

Maybe he really did know something important.

  
  


The air hummed. Raidou Kuzunoha the Fifteenth stood under the eaves of Takuto Maruki’s apartment building, and the air hummed. 

Gouto raised his hackles.

Raidou peered up the stairwell. A little spirit, looking more like a creepy doll than a ghost or wind spirit, floated down.

It shuddered.

Raidou held out his hands so it could land on him.

“Report?”

The tiny demon clutched its small hands around his fingers. “It lookeD aT me.”

“What did?”

The demon’s head clanked and cracked, slowly turning in a complete rotation. “The blind god’s eye.”

Raidou slid out one of his Kuda tubes. “Go home and rest now.”

An eerie green glow illuminated the darkness and the demon vanished. Raidou slid the tube back in his belt, the glow now gone.

He looked to the stairs, then to Gouto.

“Nothing for it, I suppose.”

Raidou ran up the stairs, Gouto right beside him.

Maruki lived on the third floor, and Raidou didn’t slow as he hit the landing and swerved to the corridor.

He didn’t need to check the apartment number. He could feel the unholy, and Raidou didn’t use that term lightly, energy radiating from it.

Raidou grabbed a new Kuda tube, green glow flowing out forth.

“Yomotsu-Ikusa, break it down.”

A skinny humanoid demon appeared from the green glow, low rice hat covering its face. It thrust its spear into the lock, splitting the mechanism down the middle.

Raidou kicked in the no longer properly closed door. 

A burst of dark energy gushed from the opening.

Raidou drew his katana, sending MAG down the blade. It cut through the energy, providing some shelter from the blast. He nodded at Yomotsu-Ikusa, signalling the demon to go on back to its Kuda tube.

Even a knight from Yomi was quick to leave when presented with this darkness.

Raidou stepped into the small apartment, katana aglow with his energy. Gouto stayed beside him.

Takuto Maruki stood by the far wall, his back turned. His head twitched, neck shifting in odd angles.

“Takuto Maruki?”

No response. Takuto Maruki’s shadow engulfed the room, his outline distinct in the darkness.

Raidou crept closer. “Dr. Maruki?”

Wait? How did he have a distinct shadow in this dim light?

Gouto hissed. "Nobunaga."

The too-deep shadow surged forward like a tidal wave.

Raidou swung out his katana in a broad arc. Steel hit steel, sparks flying and the sharp *clang* echoing in the small apartment.

Unfortunately, it was Raidou who was forced to jump back. Without knowing quite where the strike would come from, he'd had to settle for a very broad but very weak parry. He felt as though his blade would simply fall from his numb grasp.

His enemy's katana dripped blood, as though it had freshly slain a thousand men. The being holding it wore traditional samurai o-yoroi armor, blackened from the blood which perpetually oozed from the cracks. No skin showed, rather amorphous shadow-stuff filled the armor, a thousand teeth gnashing in the darkness.

Maruki stopped whatever he was doing.

"Just stay still, Dr. Maruki!"

The being before Raidou laughed, a thousand mouths in a thousand voices. The dissonance nearly overwhelmed Raidou, but he gritted his teeth and stood his ground.

"Didn't think youtube keen on your boss's arrival."

The shadow samurai thrust forward.

Raidou knew this trick. Thrust, then adapt your angle and slice.

He grasped his own katana more properly in both hands. He'd have to parry at the absolute last moment.

He had it!

Sparks flew once more, but this time Raidou could hold the parry.

The shadow samurai pushed its body forward. For all the teeth and mouths all over its shadowy body, nothing was as disturbing as the jaws under its helmet.

Raidou had seen them before, but never so close. And never so wide. Each jaw opened impossibly wide within its own miniature face, more than one which appeared swallowed by another face's jaw.

Shit!

Raiou jumped back again. He wanted to summon help. Certainly Yoshitsune would prove useful against an enemy such as this, but...

When he had first encountered this particular entity, the one Gouto called Nobunaga, the mere sight of it had put Raidou's demon in a blood rage. Even when Nobunaga finally let them be, Raidou had been forced to put down his friend.

And even upon resurrection, the madness lingered. He'd fused the demon at its request, only for a fusion accident to occur leaving the two demons a nearly mindless black ooze.

And he could feel it too. His mind desperately wanted to overpower his need to fight. To send him running into the night, screaming at the top of his lungs.

"Gouto, find the lights."

"On it!"

Raidou braced himself for another strike. Nobunaga simply stood there, between him and Takuto Maruki.

"Dr. Maruki, I need you to turn on any light you can reach. Don't turn. Slide down the wall."

He could hear whistling, but it sounded like it came from several different sources.

"Dr. Maruki?"

The main overhead light clicked on.

Pieces of Nobunaga seemed thinner now, as though the light cut through it. But still, the dark samurai stood there.

Maruki's neck began to twist, rotating his head around his neck. The rest of his body trailing behind the rotation.

At least enough humanity remained to stop him from snapping his own neck.

Unfortunately, it didn’t look like a big lead.

Snaked protruded from Maruki's mouth. They writhed asynchronously, no two ever moving together. And when a snake opened its mouth it released the whistling sound.

Alternatively, each and every mouth on Nobunaga grinned.

Raidou instinctively stepped back from the swarm.

The snakes lunged to the side, Maruki's body staggering after his head.

His movement revealed something akin to a star drawn in blood on the wall behind him. A four pointed star with four tendrils sticking out of its midpoints surrounding a series of triangles which formed their own eight pointed star. And in the middle? An eye. A literal eye staring out at the world.

Instinctively, Raidou looked away to avoid meeting its gaze.

The fanged mouths laughed at his distress.

"Akira!" called Gouto. "You have to end the possession."

Raidou looked at the snakes, each one now opening and closing its mouth like it belonged to a choir.

He couldn't take it anymore. Raidou pressed his hands to his ears. The katana dropped.

Nobunaga approached.

No! He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth, telling his mind over and over that he needed to fight. This wasn't fight or flight. This was fight or death.

Or worse.

Not just that. No. He was done being scared. Done forever with letting his weakness and foibles control him. He’d promised himself that.

Yeah, he would never fully get over his fear of snakes. And fighting Nobunaga in a duel was always going to suck. And no one was ever really mentally ready to be stared at by a vaguely sentient black hole.

But he could win.

Raidou's eyes flashed open just in time for him to roll back from Nobunaga's swing. He grabbed his katana and rose to his feet.

"Gouto, I need you to counter the song."

"Good to have you back, Akira."

Gouto ducked under Maruki's table and began yowling.

Raidou faced Nobunaga.

He felt sick.

Good. Closing off his natural magnetite absorption felt awful, but it also mitigated some of the fear inherent to absorbing energy from such a fowl domain.

Besides, if demons weren't an option...

Nobunaga charged him.

Raidou's eyes glowed, hexagrams flashing in his irides. His pupils served as the center for the mystical stars.

He parried Nobunaga's strike.

This time when they locked, his body didn't go numb. This time, the helmet full of teeth didn't dare get closer.

Gouto continued to yowl, drowning out the awful sound of the snake choir.

Nobunaga laughed, even as Raidou continued to lock blades with him.

Yeah, yeah. He knew. Knew that what he was about to summon could only be summoned because of the very being he now fought.

There was a reason gods didn't like handing out power to mortals.

Raidou's eyes blazed.

"Morning star."

The summoning felt like spreading his wing. The entire apartment, probably the entire block, bathed in the light of the Morning Star.

And then all that light concentrated into a single, devastating, attack.

The light banished Nobunaga in an instant.

The snakes protruding from Maruki's mouth screamed.

The light behind Raidou dimmed, the being once of light filling the room as it became more hideous.

Raidou dropped to a knee.

"Slice them away."

A great clawed hand shot past his shoulder to grasp the swarm of snakes. Green ichor flew from the snakes as those horrible claws dug into them.

Raidou glanced up, taking a certain degree of solace in the leathery wings overhead.

With a jerk, his persona pulled the snakes away and out. They dissipated the moment they exited Maruki's body.

Raidou heaved, the sensation born from keeping his MAG circuit closed for so long finally overwhelming him.

The persona slashed a clawed hand against the symbol on the wall, gashing out the eye in the middle.

Good.

Raidou Kuzunoha the Fifteenth collapsed.

  
  


Takuto Maruki dreamed. He dreamed of a world where everyone could find happiness. He had tried to turn his dream into reality. Tried to do right by the world.

The Phantom Thieves of Hearts had rejected it. In their rejection though, they had taught him the beauty of hardship. You couldn't always get what you wanted, but that was okay. You'd get something else out of the experience.

He'd felt so aimless. He wanted to save the world. He wanted to step back and observe. He wanted everyone to live their fullest lives. He wanted everyone to live their happiest lives.

The sound of flutes filled his ears. They were discordant, yet peaceful. They sounded like never having to worry again.

He could almost feel the weight of the world lifting from his shoulders.

Why shouldn't he just do what he wanted? How could making everyone happy cause harm?

No. He'd been down this road before. Even happiness could bring pain. He knew that.

But a perfect world.

It felt so tantalizing.

He moved in the darkness, a strange jerk to the side.

How odd in such a peaceful dream.

The piping continued, growing louder. Hmm. He must be getting closer to the source.

Maruki didn't really have a sense of time here. Just the ever-changing piping and a vague sense of motion.

And then light.

A single star flickered in the darkness, Venus shining bright.

He stopped, enjoying the light. And yet, it felt cold too, like the gaze of an angry parent.

The star grew.

Was it turning into a sun?

The light engulfed him and he shuddered in the cold and closed his eyes.

The light vanished.

Maruki opened his eyes.

Why was his mouth open wide? And why couldn't he move his head?

He slid his gaze downward. Something, many somethings, protruded from his mouth. Did he have tentacles all the sudden?

A moment later a hand as big as his face shot forward, clutching the writhing mass in clawed fingers.

Maruki's eyes widened, his gaze following the muscular arm to its source.

A demon! No, a persona seemed more likely. But in reality? Well, hiis had functioned in reality he supposed.

He stared into its eyes, one blue, the other dark. It snarled, exposing fanged teeth, and pulled.

Oh, he'd had snakes in his mouth.

Maruki couldn't explain why he felt so calm about that. Maybe he'd already known. Whatever the case, it was a relief to have them out.

He could move his head again.

The clawed hand slammed into the wall just beside him. Maruki jumped back, tripping over his own bed.

The hand tore through his wall, and through some sort of symbol drawn on it.

A moment later it was gone. Just gone..

Maruki glanced around. Someone had turned on the light.

A cat yowled from the floor.

A cat?

Maruki followed the sound. Raidou lay there collapsed. He looked like he had fallen to the side.

Lucky for him. Otherwise he would have fallen in a pool of fresh vomit.

Maruki slowly approached, even as he took in the rest of the scene around him.

Sure enough, a part of his wall had been painted on with red paint or blood, but looked as though a great beast had clawed through the image.

A rather impressive puddle of blood, and it certainly looked like enough to form a true puddle, pooled just a little bit ahead of Raidou.

Maruki hoped it wasn't either of theirs.

He knelt beside Raidou.

He only looked a little pale, and Maruki didn't see any obvious gashes in the man's outfit.

Gouto trotted over to the bathroom door.

Ah, good idea.

Maruki still wasn't sure if this cat could talk or not, but it definitely seemed to understand the situation. He opened the door and pulled out a towel, wetting it some before returning to Raidou.

A bit of cool water on his head caused Raidou's eyes to flicker open.

"You you?" he muttered.

"I'm me," Maruki assured him. He helped Raidou sit up. "Are you alright?"

"Tired." Raidou slowly rose to his feet with Maruki's support.

Unsure how long either of them would stand, Maruki walked him over to the bed so they could both sit.

"What happened here?"

Raidou began massaging the back of his neck. "What do you remember?"

"A dream. A dark, peaceful, nightmare."

Raidou looked at him, but didn't make a sound.

Even Kurusu offered more audible cues than this.

Maruki shrugged, unsure how to fully describe it. "The noise of pipes. Lots of darkness. Then a star. Then, a falling star. After that things became more blatantly nightmarish."

"You find the pipes peaceful?"

"Discordant, and in need of a good tuning, but yes."

"You're insane."

"That piping. It was..." he wanted to say Azathoth, but remembered getting tackled during the day so substituted it with, "the Daemon Sultan, wasn't it?"

Raidou nodded.

"And I found it relaxing." That couldn't mean anything good.

Raidou didn't respond, but Gouto hopped on the bed to sit between them.

The cat offered a small, oddly comforting, meow.

"After the falling star, I saw my room, and a great demon. Lucifer?"

Raidou nodded.

"Impressive."

Gouto nudged Raidou.

"Thanks?”

"Heh." Maruki found it hard to look directly at Raidou right now, so settled on looking around his apartment. Not great.

"The snakes, they were really coming out of my mouth, weren't they?"

He caught Raidou's nod out the corner of his eyes.

Maruki sighed. "And you removed them."

Another silent nod.

Maruki turned slightly so he could look at the gashed symbol in the wall. "It's going to happen again, isn't it?"

"Probably."

"That wouldn't be good."

Raidou rose to his feet, shaking slightly. "My agency can help with damages."

Gouto hopped on Raidou's shoulder.

"Uh, thank you."

"As for it happening again..." Raidou looked out the front door. "I'll contact an onmyouji about it. Some wards should help."

"How long will this keep happening?"

Raidou wandered over to where he had fallen to scoop up his katana.

Wait? Katana?

Only then did Maruki also notice the gun on the young man's hip and the bandolier filled with strange metal tubes.

"At least until we can defeat the Sultan's herald."

Herald?

"Nobunaga," muttered Raidou. "That's how he appeared here at least." Raidou sheathed his blade. "This incident actually answered quite a few questions."

"Such as?"

Raidou turned to regard Maruki a moment before glancing at Gouto.

A moment later he took a deep breath and stood before Maruki. The man no longer shook, though he still looked pale.

"Why Persona users exist."

"What?"

"In this reborn world, both Persona users and devil summoners coexist. While similar, there are several key differences, not the least of which is the origin."

"Devil summoners? Origin?"

"It is true that both demons and shadows are born from human thought, but that's an oversimplification. They're actually quite different on one very fundamental level."

Okay, just accepting that he believed in demons right now. Which actually felt way more plausible than it would have when he went to bed just a few hours prior, what did Raidou mean, "Fundamental level?"

"Demons are nature's reality given form by human observation. The oldest demons exist as an explanation of why. Humans wondered how they and the earth started, and so they made stories, turning the very natural forces of creation into demons. At their core, demons are just the natural world given form and mind."

"And Shadows?"

"Shadows are the desires of humanity given form. Some resemble demons. After all, after we created them we assigned them personalities and traits. When those personalities are drawn from the Dreamlands they often appear as recognizable demons. That's not always true, of course."

"Palace rulers appear as a form of the person."

"A person's own shadow takes a form related first to the traits they hide. How they see themselves in their nightmares. When enraged, that form shifts to how those traits are best expressed."

"So, demons are forces of nature and shadows are forces of human thought?"

Raidou nodded. 

"What does this have to do with why Persona users exist?"

"A bet. When given power themselves, what do humans do with it? When given the ability to morph the foundations of the world, what world do they create? Human power is often tempered by the very demons we observed into existence. We gave them their own goals, and they act on them."

Raidou continued. "Of these, God is the most egregious example. Because he can only exist so long as people believe his will absolute, he works tirelessly to ensure those beliefs hold. But of course, God is ultimately simply another demon."

"So God exists, but only at our acquiescence."

"Because God is the ultimate demon, he holds others to their roles. But with Persona, that's not true."

"If demons came from human observation, then..."

"Then a being born from their will is dangerous indeed. Only a human can truly slay a god, for only then will a human observe the death. Persona gives you the ability without having to rely on other demons. Additionally, the potential to use a Persona exists in every human."

"Everyone?"

Raidou nodded sternly. "I've wondered awhile now at the Crawling Chaos's endgame. I understand that it takes its time, that it revels in the chaos and the destruction, but all this scheming must lead to something. It is a herald after all."

Crawling Chaos? That reference Maruki knew. Nyarlathotep.

"So a human willed these beings into existence?"

"Not quite. While demons form from the observation of natural events, I believe these beings are something we would consider wholly unnatural, bent to our rules upon contact. Their forms are merely a way for us to recognize them. Think of it as an alien forced to weak special gear to survive a new planet."

"The being you formed a pact with resides outside the universe."

"Outside?"

Raidou stared at him. "When you call it, it breaks in. Little breaches in reality's corridor. Most importantly, this being has no need for humans to power it. It may take form based on our observations and whims, but ultimately that doesn't matter to it. Many of Lovecraft's entities were ultimately powerful aliens, and that analogy holds."

"But instead of another planet they're from..."

"Another universe. A true other universe. Not parallel or perpendicular. But truly separate."

"Then why are they here?"

"The Daemon Sultan devours everything in its path, and it constantly hungers."

"So it has a herald to open the way," Maruki mused.

"Correct."

"How did my Persona force me to form a pact with it?"

"Demons and persona may be different, but there is still certainly a link between them. Every time you call a demon's name there is a chance it hears you, and a slimmer chance it listens. In that regard, I suspect you were nothing more than a road. Ultimately, it's what you did that opened the way."

"What I did?"

"In a world with demons, the angels would have either attempted to stop you or twisted your abilities to their own ends. Convinced you that happiness meant unwavering loyalty to God. Alternatively, Lucifer may have convinced you that all anyone wanted was true freedom. A world of chaos."

"Chaos?"

"Either way, eventually law would break into anarchy or chaos would produce a tyrant. The cycle would continue. But what you wanted was truly just to make everyone happy. To stop them from ever experiencing pain. Do you realize how much damage that caused?"

Damage. Maruki's eyes widened. "You were there. In my Palace, you descended down from where I sent the spirits of those who simply wished to move on. You told me the same thing then, that I caused far more damage than I realized."

"You tore the corridor. You let tendrils of the Daemon Sultan into our universe, and you served up a platter of souls in the process. All those people you ascended? They were ultimately sacrifices to your dark god."

"No. I..."

Raidou spun to face the door.

"I know you have the best of intentions, Takuto Maruki, but you do not think them through. Each little paradox. Each messy patch job. Each one a chink in reality's armor."

With that Raidou Kuzunoha the Fifteenth strode out the door.

Maruki wanted to call out to him, but what could he possibly say?

Even the Phantom Thieves had rejected his offered reality. Even when the one he most wanted to save had rejected him. And even when Raidou Kuzunoha had appeared to warn him of the damage he caused.

Even then, he had continued.

Maruki buried his face in his hands.

The worst part, the absolutely most awful aspect of all of this, was that for the life of him he couldn't figure out why it had mattered so much. He knew he wanted to help people, so why did forcing it on those who didn't want it feel so logical?

It wasn't that he didn't know the answer, not really. And everything Raidou had told him matched up pretty well.

He'd gone insane. He'd gone power mad. He'd wanted to prove to the world how much good cognitive psience could do.

And, according to Raidou Kuzunoha at least, he'd put all of reality at risk.

  
  


"That was harsh even for you," Gouto scolded.

Raidou mounted his motorbike without a word.

"Akira. You should have at least told him that we saved most of those souls."

Raidou pulled on his helmet. "Doesn’t change what he did."

"Perhaps not, but it does soften the blow."

"I'm not interested in making him feel good."

"Akira, I know you're scared. Not just of these beings, but of what you might have to do."

Raidou wrapped his hands tightly around the handles.

"Just because it's easier if you hate him, doesn't mean it's right."

The engine softly hummed.

A voice sounded in Raidou's earpiece. "Whatever Gouto's saying, he's probably right."

"I need you to get a cleaning crew to Takuto Maruki's apartment. I'm heading to Meiji to see if Seimei's there."

"Raidou..."

"Akira..."

"I don't need this from both of you."

"I'll get a cleaning crew over there during the day," Sakura Narumi assured him.

"Akira, I know you'll make the right choice when the time comes."

"I've already made my choice."

Gouto smiled. "I know that too. And I agree with it."

Huh?

"Thanks, Gouto."

"I'm sure your grandfather does too. And if your other predecessors aren't convinced, he'll make them understand."

Raidou smiled under his helmet.

Things were tough, and they were only going to get worse, but now that he knew more about Nyarlathotep's endgame, he could better plan his own.

"Narumi?"

"Yes?"

"Is Vincent working tomorrow?"

"I believe he has the next two days off."

"Good. I want everyone at the agency tomorrow evening. We can head out for a decent dinner and make some plans."

"Time for a scheming session?"

"Passed due."

Raidou felt the light bing from his phone a moment later, the invite officially sent out.

A scheming session indeed.

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote this about a month back and decided to go ahead and edit. I really like it until I get to the long-winded explanations, but at the same time that's probably the best I've ever phrased what's in my head, so I decided to keep it in.
> 
> I hope people like my Raidou. He's been living in my head for about ten years now, way before Persona 5. His name is Akira because I wanted him to have a normal name pre-Raidou and Akira is one of my favorite names. I've got a lot of stories floating in my head with him, but it's been hard to write long lately. I find myself wanting to change continuity midway through.


End file.
